According to tax filings obtained by the New York Post, the
William J. Clinton Foundation spent enough money on travel in
2011 to buy 12,000 plane tickets at the cost of $1,000 each, or
33 plane tickets each day. During that year alone, the foundation
spent $4.2 million on travel, the Clinton Global Health
Initiative spent $730,000, and the Clinton Health Action
Initiative spent $7.2 million in travel costs.

Trips taken by the former president himself accounted for 13
percent of the 2010 travel budget and 10 percent of the 2011
travel budget, the Clinton Foundation told the Post. That means
Mr. Clinton spent more than $1 million on his own travel costs in
2011.

Overall, 60 percent of the travel costs funded the Health Access
Initiative. Only five percent was used for the Global Health
Initiative, which flies students to attend the Clinton Global
Initiative University. The Clinton Foundation was also heavily
scrutinized for paying to fly actress Natalie Portman first-class
to a foundation event with her dog.

It remains largely unclear how these charitable foundations
racked up their bills, but after concerns were raised about last
year's spending, Mr. Clinton called in a team of lawyers to
analyze the finances.

The review found that even though the Clinton Foundation raised
$214 million last year, it still had an $8 million deficit.
Analysts attributed the deficit to the 2007-2008 recession, but
significant travel costs may have unnecessarily contributed to it
as well.

The excessive spending has been a particular cause for concern
for Mr. Clinton, who hopes that the Clinton Foundation – which
combats AIDS, obesity and poverty, among other causes – will be
around long after his death. The former president is concerned
that if he stops fundraising, the charity’s finances will run
dry. The Clinton family is currently trying to raise a $250
million endowment, while also determining how money is being
spent.

“We’re trying to institutionalize the foundation so that it
will be here long after the lives of any of us,” Bruce R.
Lindsey, who runs the organization, told The New York Times.
“That’s our challenge and that is what we are trying to
address.”

Although assumptions made about Clinton's travel costs might not
be accurate, the Post notes that the former president is known
for flying in private jets rather than commercial airplanes.

Mr. Clinton occasionally uses a Boeing 727 that belongs to
wealthy businessman John Catsimatitis. Clinton and his daughter,
Chelsea, used the aircraft to fly to Africa this year.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily their go-to plane, because the
727 is a pretty big plane. It all depends where they’re going and
what they’re doing,” a spokesman for Catsimatitis told the
Post.

In an open letter posted on his foundation’s web site, Mr.
Clinton admitted that the charity needs “better coordination
without dampening the entrepreneurial spirit that infuses all our
initiatives.”